XT752 was one of three Gannets kept in excellent condition by the FAA after the type was retired, and was later sold to the Polar Aviation Museum in the US. On arrival there the aircraft was reassembled, restored to airworthiness and displayed on the airshow circuit, regularly stopping crowds who had no idea what this strange machine was! Sadly the museum closed its doors to visitors and the aircraft was put up for sale by Amjet shortly afterwards. Unfortunately since then the poor old girl has become tangled up in quite a sordid little tale of skullduggery.

Those familiar with the name of Harry Odone may nod knowingly, but he purchased the aircraft in November 2003 and there was a plan to bring the aircraft back to the UK as a flier. The attempt to fly it back to the UK met with problems, getting only as far as Goose Bay in Canada in late 2004 with the accompanying engineer believing that an engine replacement would be necessary. The new owner - by this point a lady called Shannan Hendricks (who has since become Shannan Odone) had an in-depth engineering assessment of the aircraft carried out - claiming to have found several serious defects apparently not found by the previous engineer that could have caused the loss of the aircraft.

Unfortunately the aircraft was then the subject of a messy legal wrangle, with Shannan emailing me to inform this site's readers that "an attempt to steel (sic) the aircraft was made in 2006 using false documentation but the legal owner Shannan Hendricks exposed and stopped the illegal attempt to the authorities." Three container loads of spares stored in the UK and subject to various ownership claims were then sold on, apparently to recover some monies owed by the now-bankrupt Mr. Odone.

By 2008 (or was it 2009?) Shannan had threatened to sue me (!) for refusing to rewrite this entry to accord with her current preferences. If only as much energy had gone into getting the aircraft airworthy! I suspect this coincided with her efforts to take legal action over the missing containers.

Anyway, in late August 2010 some movement finally occurred, with the aircraft loaded into an AN-124 heavy lift aircraft and flown to Minneapolis - so XT752 became airborne at last - as cargo. In October she was then moved by road to New Richmond. Since then the aircraft has gained a website and donations were being welcomed to help with the restoration. The poor old girl has also been named "Janet", but perhaps "Janet the Gannet" has some marketing appeal for the younger generation...! Good news finally arrived in August 2013, with XT752 once more returning to the air.

On the legal side of things, a court case regarding the containers came to an end in June 2014 and makes for messy reading (see here) - nobody involved comes out of it with any real credibility. Hopefully the aircraft can continue to fly in skies unclouded by legal and financial arguments.

Visitor Comments

12 people have commented on this page. This is comment section 1 of 2.

Kevan Vogler from Brno, Czech Republic

Posted at 12:50pm on Wednesday, May 25th, 2016

Going by their Facebook page, they're lining up to bring the Gannet to some European airshows in the 2017 season.

I'm looking vary forward to that.

Ian Norton from Cambridge

Posted at 7:29pm on Saturday, August 17th, 2013

XT752 is back in the skies! Their website shows she has made a successful leap back into the air

Shannan Hendricks from USA

Posted at 8:50pm on Wednesday, May 30th, 2012

Thank you for all of your comments and support.

She will fly again I promise you that! We would love to bring her back to the UK for an airshow season but there is alot of strings that would need to be pulled to do this.

Fingers crossed you will see the blaze of orange in the air this year!

Keith Payas from Gibraltar

Posted at 6:59pm on Monday, November 14th, 2011

I just saw this on a History channel programme where they transported her to New Richmond. Shame she's not back home in the UK where she belongs.

Graham Ashurst from wigan

Posted at 8:59pm on Sunday, November 13th, 2011

am glad someone keeps these aeroplanes flying even if it is americans

Mike Lane from Worthing, England

Posted at 10:24am on Tuesday, September 6th, 2011

This took me back to the spring of 1968 when I was a young RN Tiff under training on 849HQ Squadron at Brawdy in south Wales. As a Radio Artifficer I trained on all of the radio equipment on all of the Gannets, including N752XT. I still have the Journal that I had to produce on a monthly basis which detailed the sort of work I carried out, and one of the entries listed the equipment for each of the aircraft in the squadron.
I wish you the very best of luck with the project and would love to see it flying ... read more »read more »

J. Smith from Quincy, Florida

Posted at 2:31am on Saturday, August 13th, 2011

I've always had a soft spot in my heart for really goofy-looking airplanes. Best wishes on getting the old girl back into the air again.

Colin Griffiths from Pershore, worcester U K

Posted at 9:12pm on Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

Just watched the move on monster moves, beautiful aircraft, I remember building a model when I was a youngster, I am now in my sixties but remember the plane well, I would be interested to know when it is going to fly again. All the best with your quest Regards Griff.

David Chapman-Andrews from Exmouth EX8 2PZ

Posted at 7:54am on Tuesday, October 19th, 2010

Can you donate me 30 seconds of Fairey Gannet Engine Audio on a CD so that i can add sound with my old 8mm cine-film of FAA 810 Sqn Gannet Mk 4 on A/C HMS Centaur in 1960

Kirk Danielson from River Falls, WI

Posted at 4:26pm on Friday, October 15th, 2010

I escorted N752XT from the WI line up to it's new home in New Richmond. I can't wait to see it in the air.